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Should i buy a cassette based on lab test's?

I am a avid analog taper (cassettes)and i came across some cassette tape comparison articles from 1975 1977 1978 1980 1982 1985 1988 1990 and the last from 1993 and all of these test comparisons put TDK as the best chrome tape starting in 1977-1993 (TDK SA-X 1982 on).Is the TDK SA-X cassette the best high bias tape ever made or should these test's be taken with a grain of salt?I always thought the Maxell XLII-S tape was a good tape but all these tests put the TDK SA-X way ahead of the Maxell XLII-S tape and all others in the type II high bias catagory.What's your take on these test's,i would be curious to know what other's that still tape to cassette think?Thanks for any input,Keith H.
keithant

Showing 1 response by bomarc

bomarc
501 posts
 
For all we know, they may have tinkered with the formulas for those tapes in the intervening years, so I wouldn't put too much faith in those old tests. On the other hand, high frequency rolloff is a problem with cassettes, so a tape that's a bit hotter up top probably is better.

One trick from the old days was to tape some white noise (interstation noise from a tuner worked well) on various tapes, and compare each to the original noise. Nowadays a pink noise segment from a test CD might be just the ticket.
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